Does anyone know how to make straws for a hawaiian style hut or stall?
I'd try hair particles, brush them a bit randomly and then use a 'particle instance' modifier to put another mesh on the hair particles, here's a rough attempt-


And here's the .blend to pull apart-
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5pljlpiel33jllt/StrawHairParticles.blend?dl=0

Use more emitters and more meshes to instance onto the hair, and go nuts 'combing' (particle edit mode) the hair, and you should be able to get way closer than my 5 minute attempt!